So, who prays for an atheist who won’t pray for himself and doesn’t want anyone else’s prayers? And aren’t those who insist on praying for someone who doesn’t want it kind of like the overbearing mother force-feeding her kids “because it’s good for them,” or the person who gives you a present you never asked for (nor desired) and expects kudos? In other existential questions, if you do something “good” for someone who doesn’t believe it’s good at all, what does that make it — even if you think it’s really, really good?

Beyond that, if you do think something is really, really good, do you declare a day for it?

The Facebook group actually began before Hitchens’ cancer diagnosis “to pray that Hitchens would come to know Christ and find the meaning for the life that He has given us.” When Hitchens was found to have cancer, the group transitioned slightly, praying double duty for “comfort in Christ, but at the same time, pray that he his (sic) fully healed from this painful sickness.”